Sign in
 
HomeWindows 8Windows 7Windows VistaWindows XPMDOPWindows IntuneLibraryForums
Windows Client >
> 
> 
Deploying Windows image to 20 machines

Answered Deploying Windows image to 20 machines

  • Tuesday, October 09, 2012 9:47 AM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Hi, we have a special request from a customer that wants to deploy a Windows image to 20 laptops. These laptops are used for trainings so the difficulty is that they want to redeploy the same image every week or so to make the student changes undone. Also they want to be able to change the base image and redeploy it to all laptops. In this scenario I'm having troubles figuring out how Windows activation should work. So I have a few questions about these matters:

    • If use MDT+WDS+WAIK, is sysprep really necessary or can I deploy without running sysprep and still activate each machine? (because user settings of the base image need to be kept on all machines)
    • Using MAK keys is impossible because they will be at their limit since each time they re-activate a machine, a license is counted. How will it be when using KMS? Is it a problem re-activating a new image on the same computer each time with KMS?
    • Is there a way to bypass the minimum of 25 computers for using KMS?
    • If I use a solution like deploying a ghost image, would that be a problem for activating these machines with KMS? (since computernames and settings are all the same)
     

All Replies

  • Tuesday, October 09, 2012 8:05 PM
     
     Answered
    Sign In to Vote
    0
    • If use MDT+WDS+WAIK, is sysprep really necessary or can I deploy without running sysprep and still activate each machine? (because user settings of the base image need to be kept on all machines)

    You should use sysprep to ensure each machine get's it's own unique SID. It's been debated whether that is crucial or not but I've taken the line that it is. Also if you don't sysprep the image with WDS it may not capture correctly. It seems to require the image to be sysprepped specifically with the Generalize option.

    • Using MAK keys is impossible because they will be at their limit since each time they re-activate a machine, a license is counted. How will it be when using KMS? Is it a problem re-activating a new image on the same computer each time with KMS?

    By no means an expert in regards to KMS but I believe you should be ok re-activating. It should find the KMS Server and re-activate within a few minutes of being logged in for the first time, completely silent.

    • Is there a way to bypass the minimum of 25 computers for using KMS?

    Not that I'm aware of. If you are referring to the basic requirements for KMS that is..

    • If I use a solution like deploying a ghost image, would that be a problem for activating these machines with KMS? (since computernames and settings are all the same)

    If there's no other settings you are aware of that is unique to each machine. Hardcoded paths with the machine name, static IP etc. that may be captured. I would think it's fine. Personally I like WDS for delivering such a small number of machines. Create an image, pre-stage it into active directory, Inject the drivers for your hardware specs, Configure your Multi-Cast to ensure optimal speed, though for 20 machines depending on your network, it may not matter much. F12 PXE to WDS. And you've got your machines setup. Depending on how big your image is you could image every machine in a matter of 20-30 minutes.

    PLEASE MARK ANY ANSWERS TO HELP OTHERS Blog: rorymon.com Twitter: @Rorymon